Randall RobertsRobyn: built to last (Photos by Timothy Norris)
Swede pop darling Robyn capped off her spring 2008 tour at the Wiltern on Saturday night with a propulsive, mechanized set of dance pop numbers about falling in love, falling out of love, falling for the wrong man, longing for a good one. Love: the universal tongue.
Robyn, if I may say, looked smoking hot, seemingly engineered to Nordic perfection by a team of genius scientists. If Apple ever delves into human replication, their iFemale will look very much like Robyn, what with that platinum blond hair, the tight, streamlined black outfit and her funky robotic techniques.
Before the show, as DJ Jason Bentley warmed up the crowd with Santogold and Depeche Mode, an onstage screen invited the crowd to send text messages, which were then broadcast on the screen. Among the more accurate: “It smells like cheap cologne in here,” “I can't wait to see Ace of Bass tonight,” and “This crowd rules – gays and girls!” Indeed, there was much cologne and many gays celebrating their Best Week Ever with Robyn (and Robyn is indeed carrying on in the fine tradition of AoB). Also scattered through the crowd was a small contingency of the hip hop set; Robyn uses some great beats, and the producers dig her taste.
She played all the hits, including “With Every Heartbeat,” “Be Mine” and “Handle Me.” The highlight for me was “Konichiwa Bitches,” and an awesome little melody in which she jumped from Neneh Cherry's “Buffalo Stance” to Salt n' Pepa's “Push It” to the Kinks' “All Day and All of the Night” to Snoop Dog's “Sexual Eruption,” on which Robyn provided a killer cameo. It was a great night of pure global pop.
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